April Hawkins
Staff Writer
The University of Houston System Board of Regents will submit several department and degree changes for consideration by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
If these adjustments are approved, the Department of Communication Disorders will become a separate academic unit from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
The Departments of Biology, Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences will merge into one Department of Biology and Biochemistry.
The merging is an attempt to increase flexibility and allocation of resources within the department.
The new department will consist of nearly 30 faculty and serve 2,500 undergraduates and more than 100 graduate students.
The board also approved a masters of science degree in finance to be established in the Department of Finance.
This degree will allow students to pursue certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst or Certified Financial Planner.
Approximately 60 students are expected to enroll in the new program.
The UH College of Optometry proposed the establishment of a combined Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Physiological Optics.
The combined program will allow students to simultaneously pursue the two doctoral programs.
All of these propositions will be addressed at the next coordinating board meeting on May 5.
UH-System Chancellor/UH President Arthur K. Smith will attend the meeting to share his opinion on the affiliation of Texas A&M University and South Texas College of Law.
UH administration has protested the agreement on the grounds that it was done without the approval of the coordinating board.